A 3-pin cable designed just for lighting fixtures to provide safety and prevent bad signal transmissions.

Chauvet produces a variety of lighting cables for all of its fixtures, including DMX three- connector cables in varying lengths. All Chauvet DMX cables are made specifically for lighting and meet stringent standards of suitability and quality to provide safety, shielding, and prevent transmission interferences. One end of the lighting cable is 3-pin male and the other end is 3-pin female.

FEATURES

Connector: DMX

Pins: 3

AWG: 24

Have a bunch of lighting fixtures with low-quality lighting cables? Grab a bunch of DMX3P cables today and get rid of bad signal transmissions for good!

When you start buying lighting that is DMX controlled, it's real easy to grab mic cables and use them to hook up your fixtures. I designed and built automated lighting for 8 years, and I can tell you that we were just as guilty. And if you're connecting very high quality fixtures (some of those fixtures cost more than a small car), they're generally more forgiving of the data cables.

But, if you're using less expensive lighting they might not be as forgiving. If you've ever seen your DMX controlled lights not respond they way they should, change on their own, or just shut down then you're likely seeing the effects of the data being corrupted by your cables.

So...what's the big difference between DMX cable and regular mic cable? It comes down to the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the cable. DMX cable has lower capacitance per foot, which helps keep the data clock edges sharp. A standard mic cable only needs to pass frequencies up to about 20kHz, but DMX data requires more than 10 times that bandwidth!

DMX cable also has the internal conductors twisted to help with noise rejection. The impedance of the cable is different as well (110 ohms), to reduce reflections. All of these measures insure that your data gets through intact. DMX-512 has no error correction built in to the protocol.

Now, the purist in me hates to refer to these cable assemblies as DMX anything, because the USITT specification calls for 5-Pin connectors. But, since manufacturers are bent on putting 3 pin connectors on their fixtures then that market needs to be serviced. So, there you go.

I applaud Chauvet for making a reasonably priced data cables available. The only "con" I have is that I wish they had differentiated the cable somehow from standard mic cables. Perhaps a colored heat shrink label on the ends marked "DMX-512" or something similar. As it is, we're marking the connectors with yellow paint so they don't get mixed up with the mic cables at the end of the night.

If you're running more than 20 feet of cable between your controller and your last fixture, then give yourself some piece of mind and invest in the proper cabling. And don't forget a terminator at the end of the cable run!

I gave it just nine on my review since it's just a cable, Well worth the investment. These seem to be pretty good cables, especially for the price. I ordered all of mine in the 5' length and they had a red band near each connector which makes identification easy. (I am assuming that other lengths use a different color band.) The cable is heavier than other similar cables I have which I believe will help the durability. You can unscrew the strain relief and repair the connector should the need arise. The price point is very competitive for a cable of this quality. I was pleasantly surprised.